Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Thanksgiving 2013

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Ben's side of the family at Grandma and Grandpa's house! We began the six hour journey north and were greeted by a beautiful sight from the Lord; a gorgeous sunrise over the treetops!

Lucy and Teddy were very excited to join us, Grandma is the biggest dog lover and couldn't wait to have her great-granddogs come visit!

A beautiful table-setting was lovingly prepared.

While pieces of it magically disappeared!

Check out that yummy spread!

Ben's Uncle Jerry's sister Michelle was the amazing chef, here she is with her sweetie!


One more glance before it was ravaged...

We had two tables full of loved ones this year!


The big activity this year was the shooting range.  On Thanksgiving day most of us participated in shooting archery.


Everyone came out to watch!

It's not a family get together unless there is some brother engineering something, this year it was a pvc pipe bow!

It looks quite large and impressive, too bad it wasn't very precise...

Nothing says the country like a backstop with pine trees and open pastures behind it!  (We made sure the horses were nowhere nearby).

Then it was time for Uncle Jerry to lite the fire pit!

It is such a treat to sit around together relaxing.

Grandma is super high-tec with an iPad, it was a gift so that she could face time her family!  All the cousins had a chance to talk with the cousins in Colorado!

It was a little too dark outside for them to see us, so we migrated indoors.

That evening the guys began their preparation for the next day's activity - firing the musket!

Meanwhile someone decided it was naptime.  This is the tallest lab I have ever seen, and also I might add the strangest sleeper!

Come sunup it was musket time!  Ben was the range master.

And he took his job seriously, making sure everyone had eye and ear protection!


I finally got around to firing the musket for the first time EVER!  Sad that it has taken me this long, I know...



Even Grandma came out and shot the pellet gun!

The cans took quite a beating...

Everyone's favorite, cleanup time!

Aw, Tim got dirty!

Just some cousins and their grandfather...

All the dogs got along great!

Teddy totally made some fans!

As is the family tradition, many a board/card game was played this weekend.

Lucy even snuggled up to Sampson!

I decided I had to have a picture of all five dogs together, but big Lucy wouldn't cooperate, so Ben brought her in for me.

All 5 of them!  Lucy, Lucy, Sampson, Giselle and Teddy.

Grandma lovingly decided that she wanted some of her beloved Harvey paintings (from Focus on the Family) to be given to different family members.  So she brought them all in to the living room and each family member chose one they wanted.  We love having ours in our house, Ben says every time he looks at it it reminds him of Grandma!  Wait till my Christmas Home tour to see it on display!

The fun was not over yet, I decided that Tim's hair was too shaggy to bear!

I offered to give him a nice bowl cut, I'm not sure he liked that idea...

He said that only the front and sides mattered since that was all that people see when you go into a job interview.  So I followed his directions... lovely mullet getting started there!

This was just too much fun for everyone to pass up on, so we had a whole audience!

I think he likes it!

Cockatoo?

Next thing to tackle is that scruff on the bottom of his chin, we'll work on it the next time he comes home from college...

Alas the time finally came to say our farewells.  Goodbye grandpa!

Goodbye Grandma!

Even Teddy had to say goodbye!

Ben loves his Grandma so much!

Ah the cousins, never a dull moment...

Let the girls show you how it's done!

Teddy became good friends with Grandpa's dog and asked if he could come home.  I told we didn't have room.  Yet...

somehow this fella ended up in the passenger seat!

We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family and the opportunity to spend time with them.  We don't get to be together often, but whenever we do we always have the best of times!  Hoping your Thanksgiving was a wonderful time also!


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